Pay cut forces out agency nurses

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The State Government's plan to cut costs by moving casual agency
nurses onto the public payroll appears to have backfired, with many
indicating they will leave the public system rather than take a pay
cut.

As well as exacerbating the state's chronic nurse shortage,
which now stands at 1690 vacancies, the policy change - enacted to
ensure equal rates of pay for nurses in public hospitals - came as
the Government rejected union demands for a pay rise to bring
nurses' wages into line with other hospital workers.

Nurses working for agencies have traditionally been paid a
higher rate to compensate them for entitlements such as holiday pay
and long service leave that permanent employees receive. Already in
the minority in the NSW system, they make up 680 positions compared
with 35,500 full-time positions.

Agency nurses say along with the loss of income - which can be
as much as $100 per shift - they resent being forced back into a
system they had previously chosen to leave.

"We feel we are being bullied by the Government to try and force
us back into the public health system," said Alan Noble.

Mr Noble, along with several other agency nurses contacted by
the Herald, will now work in the private hospital
system.

"I am no longer able to continue working at the Children's
Hospital [Westmead] because it would reduce my salary and
conditions ... I would be losing approximately $8 per hour.

"I believe there are quite a number of agency nurses that are
refusing to work in public hospitals because of it."

Another nurse, Shahana Ali, said casual agency nursing had
suited her because she had an eight-month-old baby to care for.

"Before I was doing three days a week, now I have to do five to
make up for the financial loss, and I have had to seek employment
elsewhere working as a shop assistant," Mrs Ali said.

"They are really forcing us out of the profession."

NSW Health pays agencies about $60 million each year for
temporary nursing staff, a spokeswoman said.

The NSW Nurses Association supports the Government's policy,
saying agencies should not make large profits from the state's
nursing shortage.

Some agencies were making up to 30 per cent profit on their
services, which had been reduced to about 15 per cent under the new
policy, the union's general secretary Brett Holmes said.

But there were ongoing concerns about the impact on rural and
regional areas, where agency nurses were often heavily relied upon
to staff hospitals, he said.

The union is also campaigning for a 16 per cent pay increase
over four years in a bid to rebuild the nursing profession and keep
pace with other public hospital pay rates. "What is clear ... is
that money does matter to nurses and it is an important incentive
to get nurses to stay in the public hospital system," Mr Holmes
said.

The policy change, announced late last year and brought into
force on March 1, was aimed at removing pay inequities by ensuring
nurses working side-by-side on wards were paid the same rate, NSW's
chief nursing officer, Kathy Baker said.

She denied nurses were leaving the system because of it, saying
instead many nurses and agencies were "delighted" with the change
because it had created a fairer environment.